The exhibition Ethnography of the Body and Material—Slowness and Depth in an Accelerated Society, aims to restore a different sense of time and physical perception inherent in the act of “making” back into today’s world of ever-accelerating information and consumption. Here, “ethnography” refers to an approach to interpret the practice of artists—a slow process of creation involving commitment to materials and manual labor—in cultural and social contexts.

The world we live in is marked by a focus on immediacy and efficiency. It prizes “easy-to-understand” and “ready-to-use” qualities, while increasingly neglecting the “slow pace” and “silence” that nurture the depth of our senses and memories. The artists involved in this exhibition will present their “sensory fieldwork,” taking place in the margins of such an accelerated society via different materials such as fire, water, earth, fiber, urushi (lacquer), and glass, as well as the body.